Woman sentenced to 30 days jail for cancer fraud

VERNAL, Utah (AP) — A Vernal woman has been sentenced to 30 days in jail after admitting to falsely telling people her 4-year-old daughter had cancer and collecting more than $3,000 in donations.

Utah judged sentenced 30-year-old Abreail Winkler on Wednesday shortly after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of communications fraud.

Prosecutors say Winkler told her ex-husband and others that their 4-year-old daughter had leukemia. The girl herself believed she had cancer.

Her former husband Derick Winkler says his ex-wife has falsely claimed to have ovarian cancer and had also convinced her 11-year-old daughter that she had overcome leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant when she was younger.

The Deseret News reports (http://bit.ly/17Zliz9) Winkler said in court Wednesday that she was sorry and her actions were “terribly wrong and inexcusable.”